DNA

by teejay 32 Replies latest social current

• 

  Scully

  Excellent topic, teejay. I sure don't want my DNA in some database somewhere.

  The line (scare tactic) they use on shows like CSI is when you are innocent of a crime it can rule you out. But when a person is ruled out, what exactly happens to the sample (or the record of the sample) you provided?? Do you get it back? Does it get obliterated from the record, with a certification to you that the DNA you provided, and the report derived from it, has been destroyed?

  Here's another scary possibility: What if it became mandatory, as part of an initiative like Child Find, that every infant would have DNA testing done shortly after birth? It's so simple - a swab inside the baby's mouth and voilà! What parent - in the emotional and hormonal throes of the first few days after birth does not want to do anything that has the potential to protect their child from harm, or help identify their child, if (god forbid) they happen to go missing for years?

  The ethical problems of such vast testing are enormous - you can bet your sweet bippy that law enforcement, Homeland Security, and other branches of government would be very, very interested in having access to the data, for purposes other than that for which it was originally intended.

  The other thing is, how do you prevent such cataloguing of your DNA when you go for bona fide medical tests, or if you are a blood donor? Once your blood leaves your arm, you relinquish control of it... and there's always MORE than enough to do the tests that are ordered and then some.

  Seriously, I do NOT want to become a record in what essentially would be a DNA-phone book. Nope, not me.

  Love, Scully
• 

  RunningMan

  It's no different from the bar code that they implant on the back of your head at birth.

  Actually, it's just like a fingerprint, only much more accurate. I don't plan on committing any serious crimes, so I consider accurate detection to be a good thing.

  Besides, it will make it easier for Satan to track down all of the Witnesses during the final pogroms of the great tribulation.
• 

  Mulan

  I just don't see the problem unless you get caught in a crime, which is not going to happen to me. I simply think it's a good idea, like fingerprinting, only better.
• 

  teejay

  The chief investigator of the case, Oklahoma City Police inspector John Maddox, said, "If I take a sample on this case, it is compared to this case only and cannot be used for any other case. So an honest person has nothing to fear by a DNA sample."
  
  Riiiight.
• 

  teejay

  Btw, I'm not surprised by the (mostly) negative/unwilling responses from males and (mostly) positive/willing from females. Are you?
• 

  Special K

  Mulan said:

  I just don't see the problem unless you get caught in a crime, which is not going to happen to me. I simply think it's a good idea, like fingerprinting, only better.

  I'm thinking exactly what she said (for me) HOWEVER, Something just doesn't feel right about this. I can sort of see me digging my heels in and being pulled all the way to their database to be processed. Interesting. Special K
• 

  Big Tex

  I honestly don't know. I didn't know there was such a thing as a DNA sweep. My first reaction is no, I wouldn't agree. Actually the more I think about it, the more I don't like the government, without probable cause, forcing me to submit my DNA.

  Dumb question: can they do this with fingerprints? I mean can the police force people to be fingerprinted without probable cause?

  the police got the courts to force them to give DNA

  Now THAT is performance pressure. So what happens if some guy can't ... ummm ... obtain his DNA? Do the police dispense Viagra?
• 

  Margie

  I wouldn't volunteer a DNA sample, either, and I'm a woman. It seems to me that you'd have to trust that the police are being honest AND that they're competant AND that they're correct about what's really going to happen with the data that's being collected AND that your sample will be handled correctly AND that your sample will be catalogued correctly. That's too many ANDs for me.
• 

  teejay

  They do saliva swabs... the same as when applying for life insurance.
• 

  Big Tex

  They do saliva swabs... the same as when applying for life insurance.

  Oh.

  Well now that's not nearly as much fun.

  No, the more I think about it the more I don't like it. I think if the police need a probable cause to search your home then they need a probable cause to invade my body.